


Debts and Promises

by MorningSun



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25960810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorningSun/pseuds/MorningSun
Summary: After the Mikaelson siblings are woken up after 5 years of sleep, the family decide to go as far away from New Orleans as possible, beginning with Rome. Unsurprising, they can't help getting involved in yet another mystery...
Relationships: Davina Claire/Kol Mikaelson, Hayley Marshall/Elijah Mikaelson, Keelin Malraux/Freya Mikaelson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Unsettled

**Author's Note:**

> More than a year ago by now I finished season 4 and was unimpressed with the doom and gloom that followed (especially as a Helijah fan through and through). So instead I tried to envision what a happy ending might look like.  
> I even attempted a plot (which coming from someone who usually just writes one-shots is a huge deal). However, I am far far far from finished, so anyone interested may have to wait a while. Nevertheless, with the right encouragement, I may pull through...

It was a warm, quiet night on the outskirts of New Orleans. One of the Mikaelson’s last in the city they’d called home for the longest time. Elijah was standing near the window of one of the guest bedrooms on the first floor. A light breeze got caught in the curtains, making them sway in a gentle dance. The warm light of the tiny lamp on the bedside table clashed with the cold, stark moonlight that had enveloped the yard. Outside the sweet summer air mixed with the chirping of crickets to a chaotic but strangely rhythmical beat. For a moment Elijah imagined it accompanied by a lazy saxophone – as it often had been when he stood on the balcony of their city home.

Jazz was an unsettling type of music – you could never tell where it would take you and how long it would take to get there. And yet it was also the type of music that could make time stop. It was the music of beginnings. It had also been his refuge many a time when the world seemed to be closing in and being around his siblings had felt suffocating. It had been there in moments of heartache and despair, and moments of joy and utter happiness. It had been there when he, Rebekah and Niklaus threw the ball of the century back in 1914, it had been there when the city was burning after a visit by their father, it had also been there a few days ago at the town fare they’d all attended as a means to say goodbye. On the rare occasion no one was watching, Elijah had been clandestinely pressing his lips against Hayley’s neck from behind her, smiling and revelling in her tiny gasps and the sound of her blood rushing to her cheeks. Elijah chuckled at that memory.

He was grateful beyond what could be expressed in words to have been dealt this good a hand, but he didn’t trust it yet. Couldn’t let go of the quiet but insistent reflex to watch out for the next enemy, the next threat. Elijah was used to the quiet before a storm, but silence? He was still a stranger to that. Elijah reckoned the eve of the next chapter in the Mikaelson book ought to be the moment he let bygones be bygones, but something was still gnawing at his conscience. Guilt he hadn’t managed to reason away. As if summoned by his late night thoughts, Kol walked passed the room.

“Brother,” Elijah called out before he’d disappeared again, then turned around, taking one last glance at the full moon.

“What, Elijah?” Kol stopped and walked into the room, looking straight at him. Elijah still found it difficult to look into his younger brother’s eyes. There was so much despair in them that hadn’t yet begun to fade, and pain Kol tried desperately to sort out in any way he knew how. He was a powder keg ready to explode. It wasn’t clear; however, whether the explosion would be outward and wipe out everything in its vicinity or inward like a black hole. It didn’t escape Elijah’s mind that Kol’s present state was all his doing. He was painfully aware of it and thus, couldn’t find the right words, any worthy response that could close up the abyss in Kol’s eyes. Still, Elijah tried.

“Kol, I’m...”

“I don’t care what you are right now,” Kol snapped back before Elijah could finish, “I’m holding myself together. That’s as much as I can do. But don’t for a second think that I’ve forgotten that you and our beloved older sister tore apart the soul of the girl I loved,” Kol paused and his eyes fell to the ground. He inhaled sharply, as if the words were ripping him apart – a confession he hadn’t been ready to make – a truth that had existed between just two people and couldn’t possibly be explained to anyone else.

“Davina managed to make me want to be good. Better, at least. Then you just...” In Kol’s face anger battled pain and he fought to hold on to the former, Elijah started to reach out his hand when Kol spoke up again, “What if it had been Hayley in that circle?” His eyes were set on Elijah’s again.

“What if in order to kill Lucien, you would have had to tear apart Hayley’s soul?”

The thought alone was enough for Elijah’s heart to skip a beat. He knew what it would have been like. Years ago, he had felt the pain of losing her. He remembered quite vividly the agony of seeing Hayley lying motionless on Niklaus’ lap, her neck sliced open by the witches. Elijah remembered his whole world crashing and burning around him. He remembered every trace of meaning seeping out of life and leaving him shattered. Hayley had come back but that one night Elijah had spent in a world without her was enough for him to withstand each time Hayley had pushed him away since.

Now he had brought the same kind of suffering onto Kol by trading Davina’s soul for his family’s safety. It was a shameful kind of hypocrisy.

“I’m sorry,” Elijah whispered. The simple words felt terribly insignificant.

“I know you are, Elijah,” Kol said, “I don’t think you’re a complete monster. But sometimes _I’m sorry_ just doesn’t cut it. In fact, it’s somewhat insulting,” Kol crossed his arms over his chest, then uncrossed them again to point a finger at Elijah “Davina was an angel on earth,” his eyes had turned glassy with tears, “A couple hundred years ago, she would have been worth a bloody duel.” He chuckled sadly. Elijah kept quiet.

“You know what the worst part is?” Kol asked, “I understand why you and Freya did what you did. That’s how _effin’ twisted_ this family is. I know why and yet I still want to...” Kol mimicked squeezing a heart in his hand. Then with a huff of wind, he was gone, leaving Elijah alone in the empty bedroom. He turned slowly to face the window, but a sudden surge of pain shot through his body as his heart was ripped out of his chest from the back.

“I changed my mind,” Kol whispered into Elijah’s ear, as he fell into unconsciousness.


	2. Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I know I'm way too slow with this) Here is a little something from Rebekah's POV

“I always was curious to know how long it would take for a heart to grow back,” Rebekah commented, walking back into the living room with a hot cup of chamomile tea. The unexpected turmoil of what should have been their last night of peaceful reminiscing had really done a number on her nerves. Rebekah glanced at Elijah’s still, ashen body on the couch. Hayley sat on the floor, her back pressed against it. About an hour ago she had been the one to find Elijah in a pool of his own blood and a hole in the middle of his chest. The whole episode had sent Hayley into deep silence and put a permanent frown between her brows.

“Well, I just hope Elijah will be up until morning. After all, we have a flight to catch,” Nik walked into the room, holding Hope up in his arms. She looked down at the ghoulish sight and scrunched up her face.

“Will uncle Elijah be okay?” Hope asked.

Hayley’s head shot up at her daughter’s voice. The look on her face barely hid a desire to rip something to shreds, mixed in with worry and love. Rebekah reckoned it had to be tough to fight for five years to get Hope’s family back for them to turn on each other not a day later. But then again this was a classic Tuesday for the Mikaelson family.

“Yes, darling, he’ll be just fine. See, uncle Elijah got into a bit of an argument with your uncle Kol, which resulted in this _ungodly_ sight,” Klaus explained, “Of course, we don’t condone such behaviour under any circumstances,” he added, “if anything, my sweet child, take this as a lesson of what not to do.”

“You’re one to talk,” Kol chirped in from where he was comfortably seated on the wide armchair, halfway through a graphic novel.

“Shut it, Kol!” Hayley said through her teeth, shooting a warning look at him.

Nik was silent for a beat with a contemplative look on his face. Rebekah almost felt proud of her brother. Ten, thirty, fifty years ago he would have daggered Kol for less.

“Hayley, Kol, let’s not start another family quarrel. We only just reunited. It would be a shame to waste our time like this,” Nik attempted a benign family intervention.

“Sorry if my tolerance for people who rip the heart out of my loved ones’ chest is a bit low,” Hayley responded, no doubt, considering biting Kol just to watch him suffer for a bit.

“Oh, don’t pout, love. He deserved it,” Kol ducked his head to the side with a smile, “You could say we had a brotherly _heart to heart_.”

Despite feeling a tad guilty at the fact, Rebekah still smiled at her younger brother’s joke.

“I need some air,” Hayley sighed and stood up. She touched Hope’s cheek on her way out. Rebekah watched her disappear through the door into the windy night. One day back from the eternal limbo and they were all onto a fresh drama.

Rebekah looked at Elijah’s body on the couch, sighed and took a sip of her tea. She couldn’t fight off the feeling that this mess like many others before it, could be traced back to _always and forever_ , their family’s vow. Sitting down on the hand rest closest to Elijah’s head, Rebekah stroked her brother’s hair, smiling quietly. A thousand years of putting his family’s needs above all else had made it far too easy for Elijah to look at life as a series of threats and obstacles. Nothing was off bounds when it came to protecting the lot of them. Not even his own life. It was all a scheme – a careful calculation of his next move as if life was nothing more than an elaborate game of chess.

On the other hand, although she didn’t condone it, Rebekah couldn’t exactly blame Kol for ripping Elijah’s heart out. He was hurting worse than ever. What Rebekah could do was blame all of them for letting Elijah be blinded by some backwards sense of duty, which distorted the rest of the world. They had let him wander so far off the path that he had almost lost the ability to tell right from wrong.

At least now there was hope that with no looming tragedy over their heads, Elijah might finally get the chance to live for himself. Learn what that means. Maybe months from now she’d ask Elijah what awaited him in the future and this time he’d have an answer.

And maybe by then she’d have an answer of her own. Even if that answer didn’t include Marcel. Who hated her entire family. And with good reason. Still, Rebekah couldn’t keep but wonder what if... After all, they always seemed to find their way back to each other. Granted, this time the separation appeared more final. First, her siblings had condemned Davina to a faith worse than death, then Elijah had killed Marcel because of a prophecy. By any objective standard, Marcel had every right to hate them. Some part of Rebekah hated them too. Another was happy Kol had ripped Elijah’s heart out as a small act of making even.

Another part still, wished to rip out her own. It still had a place for Marcel in it. Rebekah couldn’t wait to be far enough from New Orleans to forget or at least distract herself from these thoughts, from the memory of Marcel’s lips on her skin. Soon enough she’d get on a plane and find a Pierre or a Konstantine, or a Lars to have a passionate affair with somewhere in Europe, which would keep her busy enough to forget an old flame. Even if for a night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Let me know if you'd like me to keep going with this :)


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